| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| VDH: a modest dissent to the "citizen of the world" |
| 2008-07-25 |
| Unlike Obama, I would not speak to anyone as “a fellow citizen of the world,” but only as an ordinary American who wishes to do his best for the world, but with a much-appreciated American identity, and rather less with a commonality indistinguishable from those poor souls trapped in the Sudan, North Korea, Cuba, or Iran. Take away all particular national identity and we are empty shells mouthing mere platitudes, who believe in little and commit to even less. In this regard, postmodern, post-national Europe is not quite the ideal, but a warning of how good intentions can run amuck. Ask the dead of Srebrenica, or the ostracized Danish cartoonists, or the archbishop of Canterbury with his supposed concern for transcendent universal human rights. With all due respect, I also don't believe the world did anything to save Berlin, just as it did nothing to save the Rwandans or the Iraqis under Saddam — or will do anything for those of Darfur; it was only the U.S. Air Force that risked war to feed the helpless of Berlin as it saved the Muslims of the Balkans. And I don't think we have much to do in America with creating a world in which “famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.” Bad, often evil, autocratic governments abroad cause hunger, often despite rich natural landscapes; and nature, in tragic fashion, not “the carbon we send into atmosphere,” causes “terrible storms,” just as it has and will for millennia. . . . Go read it all. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #14 OOPSIES, forgot TOPIX > EXCERPT: AMERICA'S EMPIRE IS STAYING PUT, despite rhetoricas + desires to the contrary??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-07-25 23:37 |
| #13 ION RIAN/TOPIX > RUSSIA COULD BASE LR STRATEGIC BOMBERS IN LATIN AMERICA, NORTH AFRICA IN RESPONSE TO US MISSLE SHIELD. Cuba, Venezuela, + Algeria; + KOMMERSANT > Russ also plans to start construc of new FOURTH GENERATION MISSLE SUBS [Project 955 YURI's]??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-07-25 23:35 |
| #12 Our Canadian neighbors have, for the most part, given us a lot of help in the WoT notwithstanding the occasional drivel that comes from the mouths of their government and media. I've heard nothing but good reports regarding the performance of the Canadian armed forces. Every country has its idiots, including our own. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2008-07-25 22:54 |
| #11 TOPIX > OBAMA IN BERLIN: ITS ABOUT AMERICA! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-07-25 22:13 |
| #10 Well, Pappy, certainly not all/most BC citizens are idiots, perhaps this one is on the cutting edge? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-07-25 21:23 |
| #9 until the fallout reaches his part of the world The IP addy reads British Columbia. Take from it what you will. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-07-25 21:15 |
| #8 Damn, That should read "It is not, despite what some would say, in our nature..." PIMF |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2008-07-25 19:12 |
| #7 Pappy, Right on the money. It is not, despite what some would say, to viciously and maliciously squander the lives of civilians even those of our enemies. Yes, some will continue to point to Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Iraq, and they will all still continue to be wrong in their assessments. In each case, the actions ostensibly targeting civilian populations was done to reduce the military capacity of that civilian population to continue to support their military's activities then and in the future. The actions were not taken without protest in many quarters of our own military establishments and were not taken without approval, and much handwringing, by the President and the Joint Chiefs. Nuking Afghanistan would have had repercussions in Pakistan (already dangerous and in possession of nukes of its own), Russian, and India, not to mention Iran and a few other 'stans to the north. Russia has nukes capable of reaching this country. Afghanistan's civilian population was repressed and oppressed by the Taliban. Nuking hundreds of thousands of people and irradiating tens of millions of others simply to take out a handful of terrorists is simply unconscionable to moral people and could constitute one of the few actions under which a serviceman or woman can legally refuse the orders of a superior when other options are available and have been shown to have worked. There are people out there, like Mad Eye, who simply cannot believe that there are moral people in America and in our military organizations. Mad Eye may believe that we're all gun-totin' cowboys just chomping at the bit to loose our nukes against everyone in sight. He might actually enjoy it should that ever happen as he'd be able to sit back and laugh and say "Look, I told you so!" until the fallout reaches his part of the world. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2008-07-25 19:10 |
| #6 Probably quite radioactive. In all seriousness, 'toss nukes' on who? Did it ever cross your obviously tiny mind that perhaps that was the reaction wanted? Moron. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-07-25 18:39 |
| #5 VDH has never had a problem with integrating Islamic culture with Western Civilization. He is villian 1 in nation building lunacy. If we had tossed nukes instead of dollars after 9-11, where would we be? |
| Posted by: Mad Eye Gromotle4458 2008-07-25 16:28 |
| #4 Concur for the most part, RA, except that without the 25% carrying capacity the Brits contributed to the Airlift, the mission would have failed. What triggered my first post was the use of the word "only". |
| Posted by: mrp 2008-07-25 16:24 |
| #3 We should never take anything away from the Brits' efforts in the late unpleasantness(es). However, the Berlin Airlift could not have gone forward without the US' big stick. Germany was a mess, the Brits had exhausted their stock of young men and their equipment was getting worn out. France.... We not only did a huge amount of hauling, we covered the operation by making sure the Sovs didn't just stop it. IOW, we risked war. VDH is right in the larger sense, and may or may not have been talking about the hauling particularly. If he was, he was remiss. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2008-07-25 15:43 |
| #2 it was only the U.S. Air Force that risked war to feed the helpless of Berlin Just for the record, the RAF flew 541,000 tons of supplies into Berlin during the Airlift. An outstanding effort that included the loss of British aircraft and crews. From the Wikipedia article : A total of 101 fatalities were recorded as a result of the operation, including 39 Britons and 31 Americans, mostly due to crashes. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft crashed during the operation. |
| Posted by: mrp 2008-07-25 14:03 |
| #1 empty shells mouthing mere platitudes, who believe in little and commit to even less Obama in a nutshell. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-07-25 13:09 |